www.hambledon-mining.com
Hambledon Mining Plc is a gold mining company producing approximately 26,000 ox gold annually at the Sekisovskoye open pit mine in East Kazakhstan. At the same time it is developing the high grade underground deposit at “Seki” from where the majority of the 2.0m oz JORC resource derives. Underground mining will commence at the end of 2011 and will ramp up to 100,000 oz by 2016. The open pit mine has sufficient resources until 2014. The company is debt free and recently completed a £9m fund raising primarily designed to drive down costs.
A 25,000m drilling campaign is currently under way to validate and improve the resource category.
Further enhancements to the asset base can be made in Kazakhstan through acquisition.
Hambledon Mining starts underground mining at Sekisovskoye one month ahead of schedule
Kazakhstan focused Hambledon Mining (LON:HMB) has begun underground mining at the Sekisovskoye deposit one month ahead of schedule - marking a significant milestone in the project's development.
The underground mining will increase gold production and cash and underpin the firm's goal of profit growth, said Hambledon.
Tim Daffern, the firm's chief executive, said: "The successful commencement of underground mining marks a significant milestone in the development of Sekisovskoye and is the next step in expanding Hambledon’s long term gold production."
The news comes after the firm reported, after yesterday's close, that its mineral process plant re-started operations on November 7, as expected, after being temporarily suspended following a leak at tailings dam 3.
As previously reported on November 3, the brief suspension at Sekisovskoye is expected to result in a reduction of about 500 ounces of gold this month (November).
In today's statement, the firm said the underground ore at Sekisovskoye was being mined initially by a modified room and post pillar method by contractors using their own machinery.
Initial underground production levels are expected to be modest but are scheduled to increase steadily throughout 2012 and the grade is expected to average 5.5 grammes per tonne gold after dilution.
Mining will continue through next year using a combination of room and pillar and bulk mining methods as the architecture of the area is better understood and the mining method will be optimised to minimise production costs, the firm said.
A design study for the further development of the underground mine at Sekisovskoye is currently being completed and the operation is based on a long term target of around 850,000 tonnes per year to be reached in around 2017 - equating to a target of 100,000 ounces per annum.
"The underground mining will increase gold production and cash generation thereby underpinning the company’s objective of profits growth in Kazakhstan," added Daffern.
